Starring

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Plot

Felix is waiting for his owner to feed him. He knocks on the closed door, but gets no response. Finally, Felix says “I’ll find out what’s keeping the boss!” He peeks inside the keyhole and finds his owner getting progressively more frustrated on a crossword puzzle. He gets so upset that he begins to flap his hands, peck at the ground like a bird, and make “CUCKOO” noises. Felix slides underneath the door and asks his owner for some milk. His owner responds “You don’t eat till I solve this puzzle.” His crossword puzzle is missing one word: a seven-letter word “chiefly found in Russia.” Felix decides that “I’ll have to solve it myself-or starve.” He asks his owner to let him try the puzzle. Felix leaves the house and sits down by a mule. As he thinks about how to get to Russia, a question mark appears from above his head and tickles the mule’s behind. The mule gets annoyed and kicks the cat across the ocean.

Meanwhile, in Russia, a peasant is pacing around in his house because he has received a letter reading “Today you die.” When a bomb-like object falls behind him, he is startled and begins praying. The object reveals himself to be Felix, who pulls off the peasant’s beard and uses it to brush himself off. The cat then goes outside and finds that he is in Russia. He walks until he finds a door reading “Keep Outski.” He peeks in the keyhole and finds two men discussing something on a sheet of paper. Felix thinks that they may have the answer to the puzzle and squeezes through the keyhole. The man in the tall hat immediately accuses the cat of being a spy and pulls out a gun. An exclamation mark appears above the cat’s head, which he uses as a bottle to pour both himself and the man a drink. Next, Felix dances and twirls in the air, which makes the man laugh. The cat swipes the paper which the men were looking at and runs to another corner of the room. The man corners the cat and tries to shoot him with his gun, but he shoots a hole in the wall, which Felix escapes through.

The man chases Felix across Russia. The cat kicks over a sleeping goat and uses it as a sled to escape faster. When Felix reaches a cliff, several question marks emerge, which he climbs up to reach a higher cliff. The man arrives and uses a rope to form a step of stairs which he climbs up and continues chasing the cat. The man uses a rope on two stubs to form a horse. Felix hides in the snow and disguises himself as a pile of twigs, which is enough to fool the man. Felix stops by an outhouse and takes a moment to examine the paper he had taken. The outhouse, containing two different men, sneaks up from behind him. The paper reads “Plot for the Revolution.” Felix looks behind to find the two men, who throw bombs at the cat, all of which miss. The cat says “Never touched me!” but then accidentally walks on one of the bombs, which explodes and hurls him back to his home. The resulting fall breaks his tail and legs off of him.

After the cat reassembles himself, his owner asks him if he found the seven-letter word found in Russia. The cat says that “All I found in Russia was trouble!” Turns out that “trouble” is the seven-letter word that was needed to complete the puzzle. Felix and his owner laugh.

Cuts

Most copies of this short in circulation are sourced from a truncated Kodascope print, which cuts out many scenes:

The opening where Felix is waiting to be fed, and his owner pecking at the ground like a bird

Felix wondering how to get to Russia and his question marks tickling the mule’s behind